Cumulus Networks Accelerates Adoption of Open Networking in the Enterprise

New network architectures, validated designs and an expanded ecosystem make it easier for companies of all sizes to consume open networking

Mountain View, Calif., October 14, 2014 - Cumulus Networks®, provider of Cumulus® Linux®, the operating system for open networking, today announced its new software release expanding architectural choices for modern data center networks. Cumulus Networks also revealed an expanded ecosystem of channel and technology partners and announced collaboration with industry leaders to provide validated solution guides for three leading data center initiatives around server virtualization, Big Data and OpenStack®. These new milestones build on the company’s momentum and allow companies of all sizes to more easily take advantage of open networking with benefits including affordable capacity, broader availability, and simpler data center automation through consistent Linux tools.

“Organizations realize the need for a new data center blueprint in which data center automation tools integrate seamlessly with cloud application workflows,” said JR Rivers, co-founder and CEO of Cumulus Networks. “Cumulus Linux 2.5 helps bridge the gap for existing datacenter networks by bringing the benefits of server-style automation and tools.”

Cumulus Linux is the first network OS as a platform for modern data center networking, enabling a rich ecosystem of management and automation tools on top of high capacity IP fabrics. Cumulus Linux 2.5 extends modern data center tool adoption to existing network blueprints.

New features ease design

Cumulus Linux 2.5 supports Layer 2 network architectures allowing companies operating such environments to embrace modern data center tools they may not otherwise be able to employ. Specifically, Cumulus Linux 2.5 includes features such as active-active MLAG and active-active first hop redundancy protocol (VRR).

New validated solutions ease deployment

Cumulus Networks is simplifying customer implementation of dominant enterprise cloud use cases. With validated solutions for VMware® vSphere®, Big Data solution with Apache™ Hadoop®, and cloud orchestration with OpenStack, Cumulus Networks is making it easy for customers to deploy these solutions with Cumulus Linux. The validated solutions include detailed step-by-step instructions with design guides, examples to try out on the Cumulus remote workbench for testing, and use-case specific training.

Expanded ecosystem and reach ease consumption

By collaborating with a rich ecosystem of partners, Cumulus Networks enables an open networking model that lets customers choose the hardware, software, management and orchestration tools that are best suited for their specific environment. Cumulus Linux 2.5 is supported on 19 hardware switching platforms including 40G, 10G and 1G switches from five open networking switching suppliers. Cumulus Networks is adding new solution partners for Big Data and OpenStack solutions while continuing to strengthen its market reach through a worldwide channel partner program with presence across four continents and fifteen countries.

With over one million switch ports in service, Cumulus Networks technology is used by companies ranging from small businesses to some of the largest global web-scale providers, in industries from technology to healthcare to education, and in regions spanning North America, Europe, Asia and Africa. Now, the Cumulus Networks vision of a modern data center networking model is achievable for a broad market of enterprise customers.

Supporting Quotes

“The Software Defined Data Center is emerging as a key architecture for modern datacenter infrastructure. VMware and Cumulus Networks have collaborated to make the software-defined data center possible with the combination of vSphere, the industry’s leading virtualization platform for building a cloud infrastructure, and Cumulus Linux, the operating system for open networking. The result is an agile and scalable datacenter that can deliver dramatic cost savings, significant automation and freedom from proprietary networks.” – Raghu Raghuram, EVP and GM, Software Defined Data Center Division, VMware

“Cumulus Networks was the first partner we chose when we launched our Open Networking initiative in January of this year. Dell and Cumulus Networks have the same goal – to disrupt the traditional networking model, finally allowing customers a choice of network operating systems, hardware and software that works best for them. The new features, validated solutions and deployment tools mark solid milestones toward simplifying and delivering the software-defined data center for our enterprise customers.” – Tom Burns, Vice President and General Manager, Dell Networking and Enterprise Infrastructure

“Our Hadoop distribution, Hortonworks Data Platform, provides an open and stable foundation for enterprises and delivers a modern data architecture with the support of key technology partners like Cumulus Networks. We look forward to working with Cumulus Networks to help customers simplify their Hadoop deployments." – John Kreisa, Vice President of Strategic Marketing, Hortonworks

“Companies looking to deploy an OpenStack-based cloud platform are turning to Mirantis for production scale, integration and support. Cumulus Networks technology is an ideal complement to our offering, bringing the same values of transparency, freedom of choice, and the same advantages of automation from the bare metal up onto the physical network.” – Boris Renski, co-founder and CMO, Mirantis

“Zetta.io has been relying on open source platforms such as OpenStack and Linux to provide the best cloud-based services to its customers. Consistent with this approach and inline with lessons learned from web scale providers, Cumulus Linux brings the same benefits to the network with scale, ease of management, affordable capacity and choice.” – Dag Stenstad, CTO, Zetta.io

Availability

Global availability of Cumulus Linux 2.5 is planned before the end of the year. Existing customers with a valid subscription are eligible for an upgrade.

About Cumulus Networks

Cumulus Networks is bringing the Linux revolution to networking. Founded by veteran networking engineers from Cisco and VMware, Cumulus Networks makes the first Linux operating system for networking hardware and fills a critical gap in realizing the true promise of the software-defined data center. Just as Linux completely transformed the economics and innovation on the server side of the data center, Cumulus Linux is doing the same for the network. It is radically reducing the costs and complexities of operating modern data center networks for service providers and businesses of all sizes. Cumulus Networks has received venture funding from Andreessen Horowitz, Battery Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Peter Wagner and four of the original VMware founders. For more information visit www.cumulusnetworks.com or follow @cumulusnetworks.

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